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Published August 12, 2022 Updated August 12, 2022

Hotel Lena

Hotel Lena playing cards published by Bichik in Yakutsk in 2001.

2001 Russia Bichik Advertising Ethnic & Indigenous Add to Collection

Hotel Lena playing cards were intended as a souvenir for guests at a hotel of the same name in the city of Yakutsk, the capital city of the Sakha Republic, Russia, located about 280 miles south of the Arctic Circle. The pack was published by Bichik in Yakutsk in 2001 and consists of 36 cards (no Jokers). The court cards depict men and women in national costumes. In addition to the usual Russian indexes of K, D and V, the author includes their denomination in Yakut: “Toyon” (“lord”), "Khotun" ("lady") and "Kulut" ("slave"). The “Toyon” king can be distinguished from the "Kulut" jack only by the fact that the Toyun wears a hat.

The Toyon kings in the deck correspond to the heads of the clan, the ladies - to the mistresses, keepers of the family hearth, and Kuluts to the master's servants. The aces depict the towers of the wooden fortress of ancient Yakutsk. The cards of each suit are executed in a different colour scheme: Hearts are shown against a yellow background; Spades against a green background; Diamonds against a pink background and Clubs against a blue background. The pip cards are decorated with images of livestock and utensils: the tens of all four suits show horses; the nines and eights – cows; the sevens and sixes - multi-coloured bowls and cauldrons.

Hotel Lena playing cards published by Bichik in Yakutsk in 2001 Hotel Lena playing cards published by Bichik in Yakutsk in 2001 Hotel Lena playing cards published by Bichik in Yakutsk in 2001

Above: Hotel Lena playing cards published by Bichik in Yakutsk in 2001. 36 cards (no Jokers).

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By Peter Burnett

Member since July 27, 2022

I graduated in Russian and East European Studies from Birmingham University in 1969. It was as an undergraduate in Moscow in 1968 that I stumbled upon my first 3 packs of “unusual” playing cards which fired my curiosity and thence my life-long interest. I began researching and collecting cards in the early 1970s, since when I’ve acquired over 3,330 packs of non-standard cards, mainly from North America, UK and Western Europe, and of course from Russia and the former communist countries.

Russian Playing Cards

Following my retirement from the Bodleian Library in Dec. 2007 I took up a new role as Head of Library Development at the International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP) to support library development in low-income countries. This work necessitated regular training visits to many sub-Saharan African countries and also further afield, to Vietnam, Nepal and Bangladesh – all of which provided rich opportunities to further expand my playing card collection.

Since 2019 I’ve been working part-time in the Bodleian Library where I’ve been cataloguing the bequest of the late Donald Welsh, founder of the English Playing Card Society.


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